The contentious, filibustered and revived abortion legislation in Texas was signed into law by Governor Rick Perry Thursday evening following weeks of protests and confiscated tampons. The law will now ban all abortions in the state after 20 weeks instead of 24 weeks and will require doctors to be able to admit patients to a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.
Those provisions, along with tougher restrictions on abortion drugs, will take effect 90 days following the end of Texas' second special legislative called by the governor.
Governor Perry heralded supporters of the bill during a special, invite-only signing ceremony, where he was flanked by Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, and Texas State Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker, who were key in drafting and pushing the bill. Protesters were barred from the meeting, but their chants of "Shame!" could be heard outside.
?You have been a very integral part of this very important day for all of us who support life,? Perry said. ?No one will ever have to ask, ?Where were you when the babies? lives were being saved???
An additional requirement, one that the Austin American-Statesman points out to be 117 pages long, takes effect Sept. 1, 2014 and will require abortion clinics to be certified as amublatory surgical centers. Taken collectively, these harsher requirements for abortion clinics, opponents say, will effectively lead to the closing of many of the state's centers.
Planned Parenthood has already announced that they will be closing three of their clinics in the Houston area that serve rural communities. Only one, in Bryan, actually performed abortions. The other clinics are closing as a result of previous cuts to the Women's Health Program in 2011, when the Texas Legislature voted to block all Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood.
"It is a travesty that Texas politicians are stripping healthcare from women across the state, harming lives and unraveling the health care safety net that has taken decades to build," Melaney A. Linton, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, told the Huffington Post.
But it was all God's will, Laubenberg said Thursday, thanking the bill's blue shirt-clad supporters.
?I want to thank what we now call the blues, the new blues?the women, the men, the churches that came and stood up,? Laubenberg said. ?It really was the hand of God.?
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